The Hindu Business Line : Corporates enter film exhibition biz in AP

Hyderabad, Sept. 26 With corporate houses showing interest in the film business, the exhibition system in Andhra Pradesh is witnessing a transformation from being a largely unorganised sector to an organised one.

Of the 2,500 theatres in the State, Pyramid Saimira, the Chennai-based theatre company, has acquired 120 cinemas so far and targets to take the number to 200 by December end.

“We are in talks with others. We hope to take the strength of the network to 300 by the end of the financial year,” Mr P. Rammohan Rao, Chief Operating Officer (AP), told Business Line.The company has mapped a total of 400 theatres that can be tagged onto the network.

Adlabs, owned by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, too is in the process of building a network of cinema theatres in the State.

To begin with, it will open a multi-screen cinema complex at Ameerpet in the city. It is not just players from outside who are interested in acquiring theatres. Suresh Productions too reportedly is on the job.

Benefit to industry

Commenting on the transformation, Mr Tammareddy Bharadwaja, President of Producers’ Council of AP Film Chamber of Commerce, said the move would ultimately benefit the industry.

“It eventually will help the process of digitisation of exhibition. While reducing expenditure (on making hundreds of prints), it will help check piracy,” he said.

But, according to him, it would take some time before they achieve their stated objective of building a network suitable for digital screening of the films. In the meantime, there are reports that rentals of theatres have shot up as a result of the organised ownership, putting a lot of pressure on the small producers and distributors.

Mr Rammohan Rao, however, has a different view on this. Exhibition is not small producers’ cup of tea. “Organised players like us could help them in releasing their films,” he said.

Pyramid Saimira has acquired exhibition rights for six Telugu films for certain regions. The list includes a big budget film, Athidhi, starring Mahesh Babu.

An exhibitor from Rayalaseema, on condition of anonymity, said the future of small-time distributors and exhibitors is in limbo as they lacked both the scale and muscle that the big players have.

More Stories on : Cinema | Channels and Franchises | Andhra Pradesh

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